5/5 ★ – Siggimanfred's review of The Last of Us Part II.

Absolute Masterpiece. Screw everyone who sent death threats over this. The gameplay is masterfully done. They took everything that made the first game an exhausting but rewarding and unbelievably fun experience and quadrupled it. After beating it I wanted to go through all of it all over again. The graphics are out of this world. I have no idea how you make a game look this good on a Laptop CPU from 2013. It looks better than most games on PC even. The sound design is fantastic too. First implementation of 3D audio and you FEEL that shit. And the story? Well, this is the most decisive point. I will go on record here and say that Naughty Dog IMO has never been good at story-telling. TLOU 1’s story is heavily overpraised. It’s simple and enjoyable sure, but its not some masterpiece in terms of writing. Neither is TLOU 2. However, I still found myself enjoying a naughty dog story for the first time, because there’s twists in here that are bold and ultimately pay off. If you’re the type to stop playing over a beloved characters death then this game was never meant for you to begin with. Go play something more formulaic and arcade-y. I don’t mean this condescendingly either. This game takes risks in its story-telling and if you can’t get on board with that, then you’re not gonna enjoy this. However, for the few people who humor naughty dog on their narrative decisions will find a point to it all I feel. Sure, it’s not a deeply philosophical one, but this is naughty dog we’re talking about. And for what they came up with? I feel it all comes to a poignant, depressing but ultimately healing conclusion. And I was left in tears when the credits played. Powerful, Extremely fun, incredibly immersive and breathtaking, TLOU2 is a game that I don’t think I’ll ever forget about. It pushes the medium forward, maybe not in what a video game is capable of narratively, but in the cinematic, movie-like presentation a game can deliver on. It’s not perfect, hell barely any game is, and I understand some of the criticisms and improvements that could’ve found their way into this game. But for a game that was finished during a pandemic, development hell and leaks that put the entire staff on edge? It’s without a doubt the best game of 2020. And regardless if you agree or not, if you think this game is the worst thing since the pandemic, There is one thing that is unarguable. Noone on the development team, noone on the voice acting cast, none of the producers, the writers, the designers; Noone, and I repeat, NOONE deserves threats to their lives over a video game. Noone. Especially not Laura Bailey. I don’t understand how people don’t get that an actor has no say over a projects narrative or design. The hate she got for trying her best to give a good performance is pathetic, regardless if you think it was a good one or not. And Neil Druckmann didn’t deserve these threats either. Game devs don’t go around thinking about how they can piss you off in the best way. They just wanna make a game that people like and sells well. Maybe you didn’t like it, but maybe I don’t like the stuff you create. Do you deserve threats to your life over something you create? I rest my case.